Armenia’s future starving

The miserable situation in Armenia has forced some families to send their healthy children to special schools for food and lodging.

The representatives of the Ombudsman Office found out that in some cases children without any problems are sent to special schools.

"Earlier these children used to go to the secondary schools, but then without adequate grounds they were transferred to special schools," ombudsman's recent report said.
The office examined these cases and found out defined regularity.

"They were mostly children from low-income families. Moving the child to a special school, the parents tried to solve not only education problem, as well as the problem of care, food and accommodation of the child," the document further noted.

A poverty and unemployment remain a challenge for the Armenian government. Every third resident of the country - 32.4 percent of the population (980,000 people) - lived in poverty in 2012, while high unemployment rate estimated at 16.8 percent in 2013, official statistics show.

These challenges are valid reasons for migration outflow in the country. Armenia's citizens no longer believe that their children can have a bright future in their homeland.

The Armenian State Migration Service recently alarmed with the rising percent of citizens leaving the homeland with families.

If some years ago the share of citizens leaving the homeland with family was 40 percent of the total migration outflow, now this indicator has risen to 60 percent.

The joint group of experts of the Armenian Labor Ministry and the UNICEF recently presented a report on reforms implemented in the field of children's right protection. The report indicated quite harmful problems in Armenia.

"The number of children left the educational system steadily rises," the report noted. "This occurrence resulted from the complicated socio-economic situation in Armenia. The children are forced to leave school to help parents to earn daily bread."

The report also specified official statistics which show that 22,300 of schoolchildren left state and private schools in 2007-2011.

Another 25,000 children of school age left the schools due to moving to another state in 2007-2012, 10,000 of which left schools only in 2011-2012.

Children are the future of any nation. Armenia seems is on the way to lose its hope for the future by not providing little citizens with normal living conditions.